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Show Under The Capital Dome By Harry Marlowe The 28th Utah legislature approached ap-proached the mid-way point in its 60 day regular session this fourth week with most of its controversial issues yet to hit the two floors, but with some rather definite policies taking shape. After all the favorable action during the third week in the direction di-rection of Weber college at Og-den, Og-den, it appeared education is in for a better deal than Gov. J. Bracken Lee recommended in his budget speech. At the same time, it appeared evident the legislature, as predicted, will take the "liberal" road, rather than one of strict economy in the appropriations bill. Passage of the measure to set up the 4-year Weber State college places the matter squarely up to the governor, who has pledged himself against "expansion" of stale services. Interesting in connection with the debate in the senate on the Weber college bill (after it had passed the House, 42-16) was the announcement by Sen. Mitchell Melich (R-Moab) that if the bill passed he would introduce measures meas-ures for creation of junior colleges col-leges in Richfield and the Uintah Basin. Considerable speculation has grown out of the latter announcement announce-ment and the consensus was that the senator's statement was not just "idle talk." There was rather rath-er definite feeling that 2-year junior colleges at Richfield and Vernal would be the next additions ad-ditions to the state system of higher education, with many figuring fig-uring the Uintah section more entitled to such an institution than most other areas, whether already with junior colleges or not, because of the tremendous increase in population due to the ojl development. With passage of the Weber college col-lege bill, the House this week prepared for work on a measure to appropriate $50,000 to the school to initiate the two senior college years. That is the amount Weber wants for the first two years, but sponsors of the bill admit they will seek much more in the years to come. "We won't ask for any more than the University of Utah or Utah State Agricultural college two years from now," promised Sen, L. Rulon Jenkias (D-Ogden), however, with his broad grin when asked how much the school would seek in the future. He was being questioned by Senator Melich and Sen. Rue L. Clegg (R-Salt Lake), after the latter had pointed out that Weber We-ber expansion would run into "several millions of dollars, at the least." Principal arguments in support sup-port of the school in both the Senate and House point to a need for the school because of the advance in population in the Ogden area and the claim that more than! 80 per cent of the students would come from the home area, as is the case at the University of' Utah and Utah Stale. Meanwhile, the joint appropriations appro-priations committee buckled down to work, with indications that appropriations to public institutions would come late on its schedule. The entire House and the Senate members of the appropriations committee visited state institutions in Utah county Tuesday and will visit Utah's Dixie Feb. 11, The Senate voted against "junkets" as a body. The third week, incidentally, saw passage of two bills through both houses. One of them, a measure to set up a revolving fund of $250,000 for relief of winter-ridden livestock, was rushed through both the Senate and House, and signed by Act- ing Gov. Heber Bennion Jr. in one afternoon. Senate Pres. Al-onzo Al-onzo F. Hopkin (D-Woodruff) started the measure on its way at 2:30 p. m. Wednesday and by 5 p. m. hay for stranded sheep was being ordered from Omaha, Nebraska. The bill provides for purchase of the hay by the State Agriculture Agricul-ture Department for resale to sheepmen at cost, less one-half the freight charges, which are borne by the state. The other measure passed and sent to the governor, would limit special deer permits to one per person' per year. This is the first fish and game bill to come up, but it is far from being the most controversial. A furore continues to rage on Capitol Cap-itol Hill over a measure introduced intro-duced by Sen. Elias L. Day (R-Salt (R-Salt Lake) to ban the use of the .22 caliber rifle and pellet air guns from everything but target shooting. A hearing during the third week, however, found Merrill Hand of the State Fish and Game department explaining that orig-inal orig-inal intent of the bill is to permit per-mit the fish and game department depart-ment to designate congested hunting areas from which the .22 will be barred. Others, however, hope to add another amendment to the bill to make parents responsible re-sponsible for the use of the .22 rifle and pellet air guns by boys and girls under 16. A bill to repeal the state's excise ex-cise taxes on margarine went through a stormy session in the Senate and finally came through after being amended to cut only the tax on yellow margarine from 10 cents to 5 cents per pound, the same as while. This alteration was made to please objectors who cited the fact that repeal of the tax would take some $600,000 per biennium from the state revenue. |